The fields of cognitive science, neurobiology, and artificial intelligence (AI) have long sought an answer to the question of how conscious thoughts and intentional desires control a body embedded in the physical world. This is the mind-body problem: how does conscious Will affect the quantum processes controlling neuronal activity in the brain (e.g. synaptic vesicle release, etc.) to produce behavior consistent with the intent? Because the macroscopic world is deterministic, the model necessarily posits that a Mind can interact with matter, without violating conservation of energy principles, only by manipulating the fundamentally-random (acausal) processes at the level of quantum mechanics (Larmer, 1986; Morowitz, 1987; Penrose, 1996; herein incorporated by reference in their entireties). A model of this process has been developed wherein conscious intent not only affects the behavior of particles inside a brain, but also affects quantum events outside the brain (Herman and Walker, 1972; Jahn and Dunne, 1986; Jibu and Yasue, 1995; Schwartz et al., 2005; Stapp, 1993; Stapp, 1999; herein incorporated bu reference in their entireties). Such experiments use a device known as a quantum random number generator (qRNG). A qRNG is a device that uses quantum-mechanical events, which are in principle unpredictable and thus not physically determined to produce a stream of random bits (e.g. a stream of 1's and 0's). It has been demonstrated that conscious intent of a human subject or animal can deviate the statistical distribution of the qRNG's output. An extensive body of work and statistical analysis demonstrate that a human or animal operator can deviate the output of a calibrated qRNG (e.g., cause it to produce more 1's than it otherwise would produce). (Franklin et al., 2005; Jahn et al., 1997; Peoch, 1988; Peoch, 1995; Schmidt, 1971; herein incorporated by reference in their entireties).
In quantum mechanics, wave function collapse (also called collapse of the state vector or reduction of the wave packet) is the phenomenon in which a wave function, initially in a superimposition of several different possible eigenstates, appears to reduce to a single one of those states after interaction with an observer. It is the reduction of the physical possibilities into a single possibility as seen by an observer (J. von Neumann (1955). Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Princeton University Press; herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.). A branch of quantum mechanics posits that the consciousness of an observer is the demarcation line that precipitates collapse of the wave function, independent of any realist interpretation. Commonly known as “consciousness causes collapse”, this interpretation of quantum mechanics states that observation by a conscious observer is what makes the wave function collapse. The interpretation identifies the non-linear probabilistic projection transformation that occurs during measurement with the selection of a definite state by a mind from the different possibilities that it could have in a quantum mechanical superposition. In other words, creatures' minds somehow cause microscopic-scale probabilities to become reality. Such an interpretation follows strict predictable laws—it can be studied, and tamed (e.g., as inventions like CD players demonstrate) by appropriate technology, despite the lack of understanding of the mechanisms that underlie it (as is true for much of quantum mechanics).
In using human or animal subjects, the experimenter has very little control over the functioning of this complex intentional system (a biological mind-brain). Because of the ethical impossibility of making radical changes in human consciousness, and the lack of current knowledge about relevant aspects of brain/mind function, scientists have been unable to determine precisely what aspects of information processing, or other events, in their living subjects enable interfacing to quantum-mechanical processes in the real world. Moreover, because of these difficulties and the fundamental uniqueness of all biological forms (which prevents parallelizing the effect to increase its power because individual animals' influences cancel out and are not simply additive), useful applications of this effect have not been produced.